Hello,
Last summer I was 12 weeks in a row every day morning till evening hewing birch and douglas fir and pine. I must say after a time, getting out of bed became the hardest part of the day, the rest was real enjoyable even addicting work that I looked forward to doing. My hands are by no means hardened or overly calloused, probably the opposite, on the soft side yet I never felt the need to glove them. Mud won't be a problem because you'll soon have the ground covered with wood chips - in the end I was working in a wood chip trench waist high. You will be busy through more than just the summer if your on your own that is, so maybe a shelter could make sense, personally I enjoyed working out on the occasional rainy day - in which case, a big brimmed hat can be very handy.
The smaller beams I worked were 12 cm x 12 cm some with bends. Holding them with two dogs worked well enough that I never went further than that, though maybe if you went to the trouble of attaching a big rock to a chain and hanging that over the end this might work nicely, I have seen it done where a pit saw was involved.
The explanation of how work was organized is Switzerland sounds similar to what I understand it was in Holland. In fact the family we bought our house from, going back three generations at least, were carpenters as well as dairy farmers as well as the village bicycle repair shop. I use sometimes, some of the woodworking tools they left behind. Of course it's not a good idea to make a comparison but one clear difference is that in Holland this zunftkleidung truly never was adopted.
Greetings,
Don Wagstaff
Last edited by Cecile en Don Wa; 03/06/11 04:26 PM.
